Celebrating his 75th birthday this month—and the 35th anniversary of the founding of his leadership development company later this year, Ken Blanchard hopes a couple of simple truths he has championed will prove enduring:

—All good performance begins with clear goals.

—Catch people doings things right.

—Help people get an A.

In the May edition of Ignite, Blanchard tells a story of his early days as a college professor, when he often found himself in trouble with faculty members while trying to put these principles to work.

“I was questioned by some of the finest faculty boards in the country,” Blanchard recounts, “and it was always because of my decision to give students the answers to the final exam on the first day of class.”

Ken believed his main job was to teach students the content they needed to learn, as opposed to worrying about evaluating them and sorting them…